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Hundreds of American veterans are gathering in Standing Rock, North Dakota to support Sioux Tribe Water Protectors on December 4, 2016. They plan to stay for three days. Surely this will galvanize President Obama to take appropriate action to respect and protect Native American rights, our water, and the climate.

“Earlier this month… [ activist Wes Clark Jr. and police reform advocate Michael A. Wood Jr.] formed Veterans Stand For Standing Rock with the hope of drawing scores of veterans, as well as fire fighters, ex-law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel and others to the battleground for a three-day “deployment” in early December to “prevent progress on the Dakota Access Pipeline and draw national attention to the human rights warriors of the Sioux tribes.” Both men say they’re prepared to…

“In addition to providing support to the protesters… it’s another way to raise awareness about the protest… but it will also make an important statement about the significance of Thanksgiving… While the myth of a harmonious Thanksgiving between native people and settlers dinner still lingers… the reality is that Thanksgiving is really a reminder that Native Americans have been exploited for centuries…”

Maybe it’s time for Student Debt Jubilee. Student loan forgiveness would not only give a reprieve to those in debt, it would create an economic upswell for all of America. Imagine the boon to our economy if student loan debtors could afford to replace old shoes, cars, and washing machines — instead of merely paying down the compound interest of their student loans.

Flint’s poisoned children deserve the truth. They deserve to know exactly why their government failed them. And they deserve to know who is behind the Flint water crisis, one of our nation’s most severe, man-made public health disasters.

“No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country,” said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in a video on Jan. 12. Gov. Haley’s video was made to counter the formal Republican response to President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address, according to news.yahoo.com.

All Americans are immigrants (except Native Americans!). So who are we to judge those who come here for the very same reasons we, or our ancestors, came?

“I figured that most Trump supporters probably never met a Muslim so I figured that I’d give them the opportunity to meet one,” she said [the woman ejected from the rally], wearing a shirt that read “Salam, I come in peace.” “I really don’t plan to say anything. I don’t want to be disrespectful but if he says something that I feel needs answering I might — we’ll just see what strikes me.”

Be watchful. The controversial Stand Your Ground law may become a more powerful defense. Florida wants to strengthen the law by putting the proof of dangerous intent on the prosecution, rather than requiring the defendant to prove self-defense.

In addition, if the prosecution cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooter was not acting in self-defense, they are required to award $200K towards the defendant’s legal costs.

The Young Turks break it down:

You Might Be Able To Get Paid $200,000 For Shooting Someone In Florida (Video)

“Any time somebody murders somebody, but it has to be with a gun… so you’re telling me, [if] I’m doing self-defense without a gun, it’s not allowed, it doesn’t get any protections. But if I have a gun, whoever has the gun is almost, by definition, thought to be completely innocent, and the state has the burden… [to prove otherwise]… A nearly…

When Ida B. Wells was 22, she was asked by a conductor of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company to give up her seat on the train to a white man. She refused, and the conductor attempted to forcibly drag her out of her seat. Wells wouldn’t budge.

“The moment he caught hold of my arm I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand,” she wrote in her autobiography. “I had braced my feet against the seat in front and was holding to the back, and as he had already been badly bitten he didn’t try it again by himself. He went forward and got the baggageman and another man to help him and of course they succeeded in dragging me out.”

The year was 1884 — about 70 years before Rosa Parks would refuse to give up her seat on an Alabama bus. Wells’ life was full…